Megami Lily Magazine

December 10th, 2011

So, I’m not sure if you know about Megami magazine or not. It’s pretty much a full-color anime-focused magazine, carefully crafted to serve the needs of the creepiest FanBoys, with lots of full color pictures of rosy-cheeked school age girls presenting their animated asses, crotches and whatever breasts they have to full view of the readers who, presumably really enjoy looking at pictures of cartoon characters’ crotches, etc. Megami also includes large, full-color posters of pantsless cartoon characters, cartoon characters in wet, clingy skimpy bathing suits and with whipped cream on their faces.

To be blunt, Megami is not to my taste.

But when they put together a Yuri-focused Megami Lily, I had to at least give it a look. Not surprisingly, it’s the /u/ of magazines.

The first 30 pages is filled with Yuru Yuri, and then it’s a pretty predictable series of moe-focused Yuri; Strike Witches, Saki, Tamayura, Makenki, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, A Channel, Hidamari Sketch of course Maho Shoujo Madoka Magika, followed by some slightly older favorites; Ikkitousen, Aria and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

At the end of this I found myself rather more depressed than elated. Megami Lily really pressed home the fact that Yuru Yuri was exactly the very correct anime to lead off with from Comic Yuri Hime. The anime audience is, apparently only interested in rosy-cheeked, slightly brain dead school girls. I am no longer anything like the anime audience and there is very little anime being made for me.

Once again, I’m thrilled that Comic Yuri Hime is making money hand over fist from Yuri Yuri, but now I realize that a radical shift in anime will need to happen before we see a Yuri anime that doesn’t make my skin crawl.

No more Megami Lily for me. I’m not much interested in looking at cartoon schoolgirls with no pants.

Ratings:

Service – 10

15 Responses

  1. redfish says:

    I am confus. Yuru Yuri has neither the ero credibility of Mikuni Hajime or Yoshitomi Akihito or such, nor the carefully engineered moe-cuteness, music trappings and somewhat interesting characters of, say, K-On. It just seems incredibly generic in art and content; the first time I saw it, I thought someone had put a “series” made with one of those cheapo “manga creator” software packages in as a gag.

    Why is it popular with the Megami crowd? Because K-On has characters with too much personality and personality makes girls scary?

    (Disclaimer: I’m not particularly opposed to K-On, but never really got into it either–though I usually buy Fujieda’s K-On stuff.)

  2. soul.assassin says:

    Even looking at the cover is enough to say it’s just tailor-made for the LFBs or the misguided.

    Laughing at it, I can pass this mag over and pick up Newtype instead.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I was wondering if its easier these days for them to produce the Moe, Loli, shiny ecchi style garbage? Meaning the way of the times in most things, a cheaply made product that gives a greater return. Usually there is no real story in these, many are made from erog novels, adult games, etc, with the feeling of an anime assembly line targeted mainly towards males and looking at many recent productions trying to come closer and closer to actual hentai as possible while using the male supremest otaku checklist. Also, could this just be a trend that will pass? Whether my questions mean anything or not I agree with what you wrote, It is depressing. Looking at this stuff is seriously creepy to say the least and seeing it as an example of contemporary popular Yuri feels like a defeat for some reason.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Am I stupid for not knowing what an LFB is.

    Also aren’t you an adult? Shouldn’t you be like… not getting your panties in a twist over something like this?

  5. @Anonymous at 6:32 – http://okazu.blogspot.com/2008/03/okazu-glossary-of-terms.html#LFB – the fact that my statement “is not to my taste” is interpreted by you as getting “my panties is a twist” means the answer to “what is an LFB” is “you.”

    @redfish – You like me, are confounded by the appeal of infantilized, then eroticized characters. ..There are a number of explanations, the most simple of which is, they took all the basic qualities of moe, made sure there was some Yuri in it likely to appeal most to that crowd and ran for the bank.

    @soul.assassin – As I say, Megami has never been my fave. I was at least hoping for a few good items here. There *were* some pages on which the characters were not de-pantsed. I guess we can call that a win.

    @Anonymous at 5:50 – Yes, simplified art is simpler (i.e., cheaper/faster) absolutely. What I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, fail to understand is the aesthetic appeal. But then, I don’t understand the appeal of Mark Rothko paintings, either, so there you go. ^_^

  6. wah says:

    Shouldn’t you feel ashamed of yourself passing judgement on random people you don’t know?

    I did that when I was like… 18… I’m 23 now but I’ve learned that that’s Bad Behavior.

    I honestly don’t understand how you can be in your 30s or 40s or however old you are and still care about things like this seriously.

  7. @wah – Passing judgement on people is human. That’s why you just did it.

  8. GregC says:

    I just passed judgement on this magazine and it’s LFB fan-base. But I left my comments in the bathroom.

  9. Miijhal says:

    Y’know, this is the thing that makes me so conflicted about anime an manga. There are those little gems if you know where to look, but it’s buried under shit like this: works aimed at men who think like children, except with a frightening layer of desperate sexuality.

    That the industry is building itself around that audience is terrifying.

  10. GregC says:

    Apparently the fans of this stuff are speaking with their money. And since making anime and manga is a business they get what they want in quantity.

    Take a look at the American comic book industry – same thing. There are comics for everyone (somewhere), but the mainstream caters to the steady big spenders. (At least the American comics are being icky with it’s treatment of ADULT women. That’s not a compliment.) All anyone can do is support the things you like WITH MONEY and hope it’s enough for people/companies to take notice and make more of it. Or at least that’s the approach I’m taking.

  11. @GregC – Same here, obviously. I’m looking forward to moe finishing its run and the pendulum swinging back to less infantile character designs.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Yeah, stuff like this in the anime fandom/industry has been around since at least the early 80’s (see: http://neojaponisme.com/2011/06/23/i-dont-wanna-grow-up-cause-maybe-if-i-did-id-have-to-date-3d-adults-instead-of-2d-kids/), so I fear it’s not gonna go away anytime soon. Especially since it seems to be the only thing keeping the business afloat these days (hey, it’s hard to try and find another audience with this level of financial loyalty).

  13. Anonymous says:

    Do you think after the proposed Bill 156 many creators have chosen to respond by pushing envelopes? When I see this stuff and allot of the Anime of the past few years (the Seikon No Qwaser line is a perfect example of everything wrong) and then think about the truly grotesque materials one might easily connect to them it seems like the industry might be shooting itself in the foot.

  14. Anonymous says:

    One thing I dont get is Marimite easily outsold MariaHolic and no doubt will outsell YuruYuri, Clannad has outsold the harem panty-shot rubbish from Shuffle to the ongoing Mashiroiro Symphony. Why continue to spew out worthless sewage like that rather than invest in a production with more universal appeal and long term profits. I understand the current trend of obsessive cuteness but the ‘creepiness’ you mention (the male aesthetic of possessing or destroying that precious cuteness by whatever means) cuts out female consumers. This ‘fast money’ catering to males style seems like a very western way of conducting buisness. Or is misogyny and perversion more important than profits now?

  15. Anonymous says:

    I’m not sure it it is Megami per se, or just what is popular with its demographic these days. I haven’t seen it in a couple of years, but it has had artwork for Aria, MariMite, and others that were of the “pretty character art” variety rather than the sort of stuff that pings the old creepo-meter. Yes, it was always a place for cheesecake and a-bit-past-cheesecake, but what came out seemed to be a function of what artwork the production house released for that magazine, and it only went as far as they were willing to go. With Aria that meant full-page pieces of the undines in their full uniforms, for Mai-Hime it was horseplay at the beach, and apparently for Megami LilY it is series that are fine with going into “eeeewwww” territory.
    These day’s i’d have to go out of my way to pick up a copy. Perhaps this explains why I don’t feel the need to do so.

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